AHMEDABAD: Tens of millions of sports fans in South Asia will have their eyes and ears focused on one thing on Saturday — the much-anticipated Cricket World Cup match between host India and archrival Pakistan.
Political reasons constantly obstruct their bilateral series. The quarrelling neighbors haven’t met in a test series in 16 years and one-day international and Twenty20 series in 10 years. As recently as last month at the Asia Cup, India refused to go to host Pakistan, so Pakistan accommodated by sharing hosting duties with Sri Lanka.
When the teams usually meet at world championships, whether its the pressure or not, their games often fail to rise to the occasion.
Pakistan has never beaten India at the Cricket World Cup. Even when Pakistan won its only title in 1992 it lost to India in Sydney. The trend continued in 1996, 1999, 2003, 2011, 2015 and 2019. The 7-0 scoreline is a huge topic of contention among the rival fans.
Pakistan broke the streak in T20 World Cups in 2021 by dishing out a 10-wicket beating.
Pakistan is in India for the first time since the 2016 T20 World Cup and it took high-level intervention this week for Pakistan journalists and supporters to be allowed to travel to India for the round-robin match at the 134,000-capacity Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Dismal spectator attendance and poor organization have been major talking points of the tournament which started only eight days ago. India hasn’t had a problem drawing crowds, but Indian locals have stayed away in droves from the other games. Mere hundreds were in the giant Narendra Modi Stadium for the opening match between England and New Zealand.
India and Pakistan have raised expectations for Saturday by winning their first two games.
India defeated five-time champion Australia by six wickets in Chennai and Afghanistan by eight wickets in New Delhi. It was a dominant batting display headlined by skipper Rohit Sharma’s record-extending seventh Cricket World Cup century.
Pakistan played its opening fixtures in Hyderabad, beating the Netherlands by 81 runs and Sri Lanka by six wickets, thanks to a record batting chase under lights.
“I will be playing my first ODI at my home ground, which really excites me,” India pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah said. “The atmosphere is going to be exciting — there are a lot of people expected to come in. It is going to be a sight to see. We are hoping to play our best there.”
India opener Shubman Gill, sidelined so far by dengue fever, has rejoined the team in Ahmedabad but is still expected to miss the Pakistan game. Ishan Kishan should continue to open the batting with Sharma.
India will also toy with the idea of bringing back off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. Bowling allrounder Shardul Thakur played against Afghanistan but the Ahmedabad pitch will be on the slower side in comparison with New Delhi’s batting beauty. It again makes a case for Ashwin, who returned 1-34 in 10 overs against Australia at Chennai.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s batting change against Sri Lanka worked wonders, with Abdullah Shafique scoring a fine hundred on his Cricket World Cup debut. It consigns out-of-form Fakhar Zaman to the bench at least in the short term, while also adding strength to the batting lineup that is so dependent on captain Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan.
While Rizwan’s century won the day against Sri Lanka, Azam has yet to fire. He’s scored 5 and 10 and has faced only 33 balls in total. Azam has an ordinary record against India — in seven ODIs he has managed only 168 runs at an average of 28, without crossing 50 once.
“Going to Ahmedabad, we have momentum from these two wins (against the Netherlands and Sri Lanka),” Rizwan said after his match-winning 131 in the second game. “We have plans against India. They will also have plans against us. It should be exciting.”
